voorlopern.
/ˈvʊələʊpə/, /ˈfʊələʊpə/, U.S. /ˈvʊ(ə)rˌloʊpər/, /ˈfʊ(ə)rˌloʊpər/, South African English /ˈfʊərlʊəpər/ South African.
A native boy who walks with the foremost pair of a team of oxen in order to guide them. Also figurative.
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the world > food and drink > farming > farmer > [noun] > farm worker > driver of a team of draught animals
goadman1606
goad-groom1614
teamer1696
teamster1758
team man1763
goadsman1788
teamsman1792
voorloper1837
mule skinner1870
swamper1870
tracer1899
skinner1910
society > travel > transport > transport or conveyance in a vehicle > driving or operating a vehicle > driver or operator of vehicle > [noun] > driver of team of animals > of bullocks > boy guiding foremost pair
voorloper1837
1837 J. E. Alexander Narr. Voy. Observ. W. Afr. I. xiii. 323 Then a long wagon would pass..drawn by a span of ten or fourteen oxen under the guidance of a voorlooper, a brown boy, holding occasionally a small rope attached to the horns of the leading bullocks.
1852 C. Barter Dorp & Veld vii. 49 Our driver and leader, or voor looper, were both Hottentots.
1878 A. Aylward Transvaal of To-day ii. 18 (note) Every team of bullocks has a leader, generally a native boy, who holds a tow-line fastened to the horns of the front oxen, hence the word ‘Voorlooper’.
1885 H. R. Haggard King Solomon's Mines i A wagon, with a driver, a voorlooper, and a Kafir hunter.
1899 G. H. Russell Under Sjambok 50 But, have you not got me a driver and voorloper?
1947 Cape Argus 22 Feb. 4 We in the pilot train are at first sight everywhere mistaken for the royal train itself. In time..the fact that we are merely the ‘voorloper’ of royalty will become more generally known.
1974 Weekend Post (Port Elizabeth) 21 Dec. 2 Clandestine trips were made across the Great Fish River, and it was on these that George Wood became a ‘voorloper’ of the oxen.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1986; most recently modified version published online December 2021).
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n.1837